The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published on Monday the names of thousands of offshore companies and their owners, a data base of 214,000 entities set up in 21 jurisdictions. The leaks contain corporate information about trusts, funds, companies and stakeholder names. The latest Offshore Leaks by ICIJ have uploaded names of offshore owners and intermediates, however without sensitive personal data like bank accounts, e-mails and phone numbers. It is up to authorities to investigate whether the names published have been involved in tax evasion and dodging.
The data was obtained by the Panama law firm Mossack Foneca, a world leader in the establishment of offshore companies. The company claims that it has been hacked.
In ICIJ offshore leaks section “Greece” there are 223 offshore companies (offshore entities) related to 400 beneficiaries-members names (officers), 77 brokers-intermediaries (mainly law firms) and 313 addresses, mostly in Athens.
Some of the names are well-known to the Greek public: several businessmen, high-ranking managers of business groups, famous journalist. But also names that are hard to identify.
When the first Panama Papers data was published in April, only one Greek name was posted, the name of an advisor of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
According to the ICIJ, the former PM’s advisor Stavros Papastavrou was a board member at Green Shamrock Foundation and Diman Foundation between 2005 and 2014 and became a VP at Aisios Foundation in 2006. Konstantinos Lanaras and Spyros Metaxas were both involved in the Aisios Foundation.
Mr. Papastavrou initially responded that he did not remember the aforementioned foundations, but later revised his statement and claimed that he served on the boards “for two long term family members”.
A law firm speaking on behalf of Aisios also claimed that Mr. Papastavrou resigned in 2012 and never had a right to the foundation’s assets, nor did he receive any remuneration.
State broadcaster ERT reported on Tuesday that economic prosecutors and teams have already started to raid homes and offices of several “names” published in the ICIJ database and that raids have been conducted also to those included in the famous Lagarde-List.
More impressive are, however, the entries about “Cyprus”: 6,374 offshore companies, 3,678 beneficiaries-company executives, 183 brokers and 2,385 addresses, mostly in Nicosia and Limassol.
It is worth noting, that no Greek mainstream media publishes the names of the Greeks in the ICIJ data base. And it is correct so, as setting up an offhsore company is not by itself illegal.
The ICIJ said it was putting the information online “in the public interest” as “a careful release of basic corporate information” as it builds on an earlier database of offshore entities.
Setting up an offshore company is not by itself illegal or evidence of illegal conduct, and Mossack Fonseca said it observed rules requiring it to identify its clients.
But anti-poverty campaigners say shell companies can be used by the wealthy and powerful to shield money from taxation, or to launder the gains from bribery, embezzlement and other forms of corruption.
Link: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The money of the Corsican and Italian Mafia with that they’ve saved the capitalistic systems arses after Lehman – some 1/3 of the necessary recapitalization was Mafia money – they obviously haven’t found so far as otherwise we would read of executions in public but on the other hand the Mafie that don’t need to shoot work perfect